Sunday, February 25, 2007

Broomfield Park in North London has hosted a Mediterranean Gull for a while now and this was my third attempt to get some photos as the bird apparently comes to bread, approaching down to a few metres. There were a couple of hundred Black-headed Gulls on the four small ponds but at the weekend there is just too much disturbance from devil-dogs, remote-controlled boats, and some dodgy characters. I think I'll give up now. Besides, Black-headed Gulls can make just as good subjects. Highlight of the day was a Kingfisher in what is quite an unlikely location, considering the disturbance. Still, spending the winter here is probably worth it judging by the number of sticklebacks the bird was knocking back. It was a bit too distant for dlsr photography but digiscopers would do pretty well. Below is a highly copped shot of the bird in which I've managed to catch it turning a fish after beating it on the branch.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

A cloudy and showery weekend, Saturday only had about 20 minutes of nice sunlight, and not all at once. Down at the London Wetland Centre there were some early signs of spring, though quiet bird-wise. In the Wildside there were several trilling Little Grebes and one bird, on one of my favourite pools, was almost in full breeding plumage.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Lisa came down to London this weekend and we took the train up to Cheshunt for the Lee Valley Birdwatching and Wildlife Fair at Fishers Green on Saturday. Of the talks, the question-and-answer session with Simon King was probably the most interesting. Had a look at the new Kowa TSN-883 'scope in the optics tent. It's very impressive but a salesman at one of the stands tried to tell me that it would go up in price over the course of the year. Eh? Most things come down in price or at least hover around the release price. Don't know if this was a ploy to encourage me to buy one now but if I do buy one eventually it will be with a well known web company who are already selling it for way cheaper than this company. Best sighting of the day was a Water Vole. A few photos below from the walk through River Lee Country Park...

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Saturday was a washout but by lunchtime Sunday the weather had improved. Enough time to nip back to Regent's Park for some heron action.Normally I avoid photographing captive/collection/caged/whatever plastic birds. All of my pics are indeed of wild birds but I coudn't resist shooting the dabbling behaviour of the free-roaming (part of the waterfowl collection) Whooper Swans in the park. Just thought I'd let you know beforehand.